The subject matter described and/or illustrated herein relates generally to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to electrical connectors that interconnect circuit boards.
Electrical connectors that interconnect two circuit boards typically include mating contacts that electrically connect to one of the circuit boards and mounting contacts that connect to the other circuit board. Specifically, the mounting contacts are commonly received within vias of the corresponding circuit board, while the mating contacts engage electrical contacts extending from the corresponding circuit board or an intervening header connector. The patterns of vias and electrical contacts of the circuit board are sometimes referred to as a “footprint” of the circuit board.
To meet digital multi-media demands, higher data throughput is often desired for current digital communications equipment. Current digital communications equipment may therefore attempt to increase signal speed, signal density, and/or electrical performance while maintaining reasonable cost. Electrical connectors that interconnect circuit boards must therefore handle ever increasing signal speeds at ever increasing signal densities. However, increasing signal speed and density may conflict with improving electrical signal performance. For example, increasing signal speed and/or density may introduce more signal noise, commonly referred to as crosstalk.
Crosstalk often occurs at the footprints of the circuit boards. Specifically, crosstalk may occur between adjacent vias or electrical contacts of the circuit boards that are engaged with the mating and mounting contacts of the electrical connector. For example, when a driven signal enters the receiving via of a other circuit board, cross talk may occur between the receiving via and one or more adjacent vias of the other circuit board. If the crosstalk then propagates in the same direction as the driven signal, the crosstalk is commonly referred to as “far-end crosstalk”. Far-end crosstalk that occurs at the footprint of a circuit board may be difficult to reduce. For example, known methods for reducing far-end crosstalk at the circuit board footprints may reduce impedance, decrease signal density, and/or increase cost.
A need remains for an electrical interconnection that reduces total far-end crosstalk generated by two footprints on each side of a connector without reducing impedance, decreasing signal density, and/or increasing cost of either footprint alone.